Before Equestria
by wormtailismyidol
Summary: In a world before Equestria was born, a sarcastic hero, a straight laced dressmaker, an eccentric teacher, and their friends work together to unravel the secrets of their homeland and fight for their freedom. Rated T for mild language and mild violence. Warnings: AU, OC.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Before Equestria

This story, along with many others that come before it, starts with once upon a time.

Once upon a time, before the magical land of Equestria was born, and before the three tribes were established, the ponies of the earth and sky lived together in a state of fragile harmony. In other words the goddamned economy was crap. Their society was held together by a tree alone. This great tree, known simply as The Elder Tree, stood in the middle of The Forest and was worshipped by The Cult of The Elder Tree. Everypony in The Forest was a member of The Cult. If you weren't, you were somewhere out in The Great Beyond, and you were ridiculed.

The Forest was the best place to live at the time. Considering that there wasn't enough magic to raise the sun and the ponies lived in eternal darkness, it was the brightest. A perpetual light that came from the buildings, the lanterns, and the fireflies tried to cover up that darkness, but failed. The way to navigate The Forest was to go down The Great Path through the middle. It led to the various villages and was filled with street venders for anypony who wanted to make a rest stop. Time was kept by The Mother Clocks which stood in the center of each village.

The villages themselves rested on hills and cliffs and made up of houses basically built on top of each other. Perhaps their most interesting aspect was the use of water for decoration. Rivers and waterfalls made up most of the area. Bridges were a necessary part of every village.

This society was built to last. Yet, it crashed and burned.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

PES

There are three types of ponies in this world, and I hate two of them. First you've got the star ponies. They're all into constellations and crap. Their deal is that they think the stars change our fate or something. It's silly. Then you've got the ponies who care too much. They're all preachy about mares' rights and the stupid economy. The last type is the regular jerks like me. I don't hate those ponies, but I don't want to be one of them.

My name's Tumble Spirit, I'm ten years old, and I believe in PES. That's Perpetual Envy Syndrome. I came up with it myself. I'm sure you've heard of The Father Pony. If you haven't, you've been living under a rock. He's the leader of The Cult of the Elder Tree. He says that envy is bad, and those who have it will go to The Abyss when they die. I say I have PES. If it's a real mental disability, I'll get away with it. I like to say I'm clever like that.

Now, if anypony deserves to go to the Abyss, It's my best friend, Zeal. He's a real mad hatter if you know what I mean. And he's pretty snarky. Back when we were in school, he told our teacher to "cut the crap." He's real brave though. I don't know anypony like him. When we graduated and they told us our jobs, he flipped. You pull your job out of a hat, see, and he got teacher's assistant. Now he works for this guy, Inkwell.

I'm a messenger, and I like it that way. That's just about the best job you can get in this god-forsaken hellhole. I know just about everyone in The Forest. I'm the eyes and ears of this place I guess you could say.

Sometimes I talk to myself when I'm on the job. I talk about what life would be like somewhere else. I wish I could've gone with my dad, that's what I wish. He's out in The Great Unknown somewhere. I wonder if there's natural light in The Great Unknown. You know, like the sun. I think that's what they call it.

Anyway, talking on the job. I did that on this one particular Friday morning. That's where my story starts I guess.

It was a nice day. Clear. You could see the stars and the moon. I woke up early like I do every Friday and looked out the window. We light up our villages so much that it's almost like there's sunlight. Almost. I picked up my satchel from the floor of my bedroom and I was ready to start the day. Oh man, you should come over and see my house sometime. It's a child's dream, that's what it is. We've got just about everything you'd ever need and it's all piled up in our living room.

I trotted out the front door and into the open air. My first job of the day was to deliver a letter to Straight Lace. This old stallion gave me the envelope and I put it in my satchel. Straight Lace is a pretty grouchy old girl. She's not afraid to brag about how she's twenty two either. To be honest, I have no clue what her job is. She's some kind of dress maker I think.

So it was a nice day. The mares' rights people were out already. God how I hate them. My village is full of them too. They seem to think that just because I'm a guy, I'm suddenly sexist or something.

Dear God, days in The Forest are boring. I talked to myself a little to keep myself from going absolutely crazy. It wasn't easy. I trotted through the grassy paths and through Purple Heart's chicken enclosure just for the hell of it. I went over all the bridges careful to avoid the water. I can't swim after all.

So I got to Straight Lace's house. She lives by herself in this old oak tree. It's all decorated with flowers and ribbons. It's enough to make you want to puke. I pushed open the door and went inside. She was working at her sewing machine on some new dress.

"Hey, Straight Lace," I said.

She jumped a mile, that silly old girl. She didn't look happy. She never does.

"Hello, Tumble Spirit. Ah, I see you have the letter I was expecting. Good."

I handed it to her.

"What's in it?"

"Oh, order forms. Something of the sort. You shouldn't be so nosy, you silly child."

She fluffed her short orange hair and straightened her hat. I had a look around the room. There was this new bag of jewels and I couldn't help pouring it out and looking at them.

"Tumble," she said. She had that old you're-in-trouble expression on. I hate that. "Tumble, put those jewels back in the bag. I need them for the new project I'm working on."

"What project?" I said.

"A dress for myself actually. Here's your tip. Two copper pieces. Now, will you be a dear and tell Inkwell I'll be a little late."

"For what?"

"Messenger's aren't supposed to ask questions, Tumble."

"Right. Well, I'm off. I'll give Inky your message, Mademoiselle."

I took off at a canter. I could hear her calling from behind, "No running in the house!"

That silly old girl.

I found Inkwell in the schoolhouse with Zeal.

"Straight Lace says she'll be a little late," I said.

"Will she now?"

Inkwell isn't just a teacher. He's also a researcher. He knows just about everything in the world. Hell, he even knows everypony's address. I'd say he's a little on the eccentric side, but he's still just about the coolest guy I know. When I'm nineteen like him, I'm not gonna be shut up in some old schoolhouse though. I'm gonna be out in The Great Unknown.

Zeal came out from behind a pile of books.

"Hey, freckleface. How's the Mademoiselle? Beautiful as always?"

Everypony in The Forest knew that Zeal had a crush on Straight Lace.

"Aww, shut up," I said, walking over to Inkwell's desk, "What're you workin' on?"

"I'm reading up on elder wolf bites and anti-venom before the kids get here."

Elder wolves are the coolest pets you can hope for. They're pretty magical, and they're brightly colored. They're also poisonous, so if you ever get one you should watch out.

"Is that what you're teaching them about?"

"You bet."

"God, I'd love an elder wolf of my own," I said.

Zeal perked up.

"Why do you use that word all the time?"

"What word?"

"'God'" he said.

The real reason I say God instead of Father Pony is because I don't believe in that crap. I read about God in a book once. That's just the word I use for everything.

So I was just about to make up some lame-o answer to that question when the bell rang. The whole damn class came filing into the schoolhouse.

"Hi, Zeal. Hi, Tumble."

It was Morning Current. That's my other best friend. Yellow mane. No cutie mark yet 'cause she's a year younger than me and Zeal. She talks with a lisp and she can whistle through the gap between her teeth. I think she's really cool.

I got out of the schoolhouse as fast as I could.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Elder Tree

The next day was Saturday. I don't work on the weekends. Thank God for that.

I had this nice morning all planned out. Me and Zeal and Morning Current were going to go to the Elder Tree. We met up in the village square at, I'll say nine o'clock, and made our way through the streets. Soon we were out of the village and trotting at a nice little pace down The Great Path. You should see it at nine in the morning. It's a riot. There are street venders everywhere. It's funny. They think they can cover up the darkness. But they can't.

We walked down The Path for a really long time. My hooves started to hurt.

"Hey, Tumble," said Current, "I just remembered, I'll get to see your mom. I love that girl. She's a crack up."

My mom works as a guard for The Elder Tree. That means she has to get up at about five in the morning and head all the way over to the middle of The Forest.

Now, a trip to The Elder Tree is really something. First you see this bright light up ahead. Then you get closer and closer and you realize it's coming from a huge (and I mean huge) tree in the center of The Forest. The tree itself is a wonder. It glows white and all the little flowers that bloom from its branches rain down on everypony. It's like magic or something.

Well, it is magic.

Then there are all the lanterns that people put around it. And the candles.

When we got there, it was hard to fight the crowds, but I saw my mom. She's probably the coolest mom you'll ever see. She's got a chin length sandy mane just like mine. She even has the pistachio colored streaks. I think she dyes her mane now though.

So we sat down on one of the benches and just looked up at the tree for a while. We talked about everything you can think of.

Then I thought I smelled something. I shrugged it off at first, but then it got stronger. I was about to say something when Current said something like, "Do you smell smoke?" I smelled it alright. Everypony looked around all scared like, but we couldn't figure out where the smell was coming from. Then it just got even stronger. And we realized it was coming from The Elder Tree itself. Everypony started yelling to put water on it or something, but it was already too goddamn late. The tree was on fire.

We all backed away and just watched the thing burn. You couldn't see much through the smoke. Just this huge grey cloud. It became so much darker all of a sudden. The fire died down. Then there was this big crash. The tree fell.

And I never saw my mom again.


End file.
